Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series. I do however finally own a laptop again! Woo laptop!

PLEASE READ BELOW!

So, if you read the last chapter within an hour of me posting it (there were only like 15 of you), you may have noticed that it didn't end very good. Well, that's because for some reason only half of it posted. I don't know what happened, but I fixed it. So, if you're reading this and the last chapter sucked, go back and finish it now. Sorry about the mistake!

Anyway, once you read the last chapter all the way through if you haven't already, go ahead and enjoy this chapter! It's finally back to Draco's POV. I hope you all like it!

Without further ado!

Chapter 6

Draco POV

"So, how did your date spying go?" Blaise asked as he flopped onto my bed, making himself at home. I hadn't been back but five minutes.

I grinned over at my best mate. "Well, I have to thank you so much for being a horrible friend and not helping me," I told him, laughing happily. "Her date ended up being horrible, no thanks to me mind you. The boy was just a git. I swooped in and saved her, breaking his nose, and spent the rest of the day with her. I even ditched Pansy without any problem. If you had been there, I wouldn't have been able to take her out today. You would have been a third wheel."

Blaise scowled at me, mutter, "Should gone."

"So how did your study date with Kim go?" I asked in an overly nice voice.

Blaise frowned even deeper. "You want to know how it went?" he asked. "We studied, that's all! Who studies on a study date? It's a date! She didn't even let me kiss her goodnight!" He let out a sigh and threw himself onto the pillows. "It's like she could care less about the fact I'm an attractive man."

"Maybe she's into girls," I joked with a chuckle. "Kinda hot, but not exactly helpful for you."

Blaise sighed and shook his head. "I'll figure it out, just need to woo her. She's a tough nut to crack, but I'll do it. Nobody can resist this charming hunk of man," he said, gesturing himself as he struck a seductive pose on the bed.

"Now I'll never be able to look at my bed again, thank you," I joked, rolling my eyes.

"Well, at least I still have one thing going for me," Blaise said, a trace of wistful hopefulness.

"And what's that?" I probed, seeing none for him as I basked in my success.

"I'll never run out of opportunities to spend time with her. She's always in the library," he said with a chuckle. "Maybe I'll win our bed with a roll in the stacks."

I laughed and shook my head. "As if you could drag her away from her books long enough," I said gleefully.

"I don't have to take this abuse," he said with mock indignantly, standing from the bed. "Good day sir!" And with that, he stormed out none to convincingly.

I shook my head at him as the door closed. Finally alone, having gotten to gloat, I was ready to relax. I began with taking a nice, hot shower, just letting the water cascade over me, soaking me from head to toe. As I stood under the stream of water, I let my mind wander back on the day.

I'd enjoyed myself more than I'd planned. Ginny was genuinely fun to be around, much more than I'd expected. I'd lucked out when I'd spotted her heading to Hogsmeade alone that morning. I was honestly surprised when she agreed to let me accompany her without complaint. In turn I surprised her when I paid for the owl food she'd gotten. I could tell it made her uncomfortable, that she felt she owed me. So I deiced to prove to her it was fine, that she didn't. So I continued to pay for her, everything she needed. I could tell by the time we got to the apothecary shop she was getting used to the idea, though she still insisted halfheartedly she pay for her things.

I found myself actually enjoying her company as we settled down to have a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks. When I'd mentioned this Dean fellow stealing her heart, I could sense her hesitation. This is what I was going for. This was a good sign. So I prompted her to talk, and was rewarded when her words came spilling out, an unsettled tied. Then I knew, I knew that I had hope to win this bet after all. She didn't like Dean nearly as much as she wanted a boyfriend. So then I just had to plant a seed of doubt about the boy and set back to watch what happened.

I hadn't expected the boy to do all my work for me. I'd planned on taking Pansy to the Three Broomsticks after Honeydukes, giving Ginny some time with Dean to make my intent less obvious. But when I walked back out to the street, the annoying Pansy on my arm, I came upon a scene through the window that made my blood boil.

I could tell through the window that things were tense. My first thought was pleased that things were going so well for me but it was soon followed by the nearly unfamiliar feeling of guilt. I surprised myself at feeling guilty that I was glad her first date, the one she'd been looking forward to since she was a little girl, was going so badly. But when I saw her try and leave and him grab her arm, both screaming at each other, anger overrode all other emotions. How dare he touch her!

Leaving a startled Pansy in the street, I found myself storming into the Three Broomsticks, anger rolling off of me in waves. The crowd was focused on the scene that Ginny was making yelling at the Dean. She was so lost in her anger she didn't even noticed my approach, that was until I punched her date squarely in his nose. It crunched satisfyingly under my fist.

The look she gave me said it all. I was her hero. Pulling her out of there with me, I decided I'd do my best to make up that horrible date to her. Whether she realized it or not, I was going to take her on the date she deserved. I couldn't say why I did it when just saving her from Dean would have been enough in her eyes. But I did, and I enjoyed myself far more than I should have. Somewhere along the line I realized I wasn't acting. It didn't bother me either, which was just as surprising.

I knew she'd enjoyed herself, it was written all over her face, plastered on as a big grin that didn't go away. I was pleased with myself. I'd made a lot of progress today. When potion's class Monday came I'd see for sure if I'd succeeded in making her consider me a friend. I was feeling pretty confidant about it.

Shutting the shower off, I shook myself from my thoughts. I'd have to wait two days before seeing Ginny again. For now I'd just relax. I had an awful lot of homework I needed to do in the mean time. I hadn't planned on spending so much time in Hogsmeade, but I didn't regret it, even as I walked out of the bathroom to begin my homework. Not surprisingly at all, Blaise was already back, spread across my bed with his textbooks. Rolling my eyes, I joined him in our studies.

Ginny POV

Monday came much too soon for my liking. After such a wonderful weekend, I didn't want it to end. After spending the day with Draco in Hogsmeade, I'd regaled the girls in my dorm with quite the story. By the next day, Dean was getting glares from all four of them and more than one gushed about Draco. I just rolled my eyes, smiling. Yes, he'd been such a dear to me, but I wasn't going to go all goo goo over him.

But of course, Sunday came to and end and I woke up needing to go to classes again. The only thing I really found myself looking forward to was Potions, for more than the usual reasons. Sure I enjoyed that class, for potions was my favorite subject, but I began to look forward to seeing Draco too.

I trailed along with Harry, Ron and Hermione to breakfast that morning, sleepily keeping quiet. I wasn't a morning person, but having the three of them with me was incentive to get up and eat breakfast before class.

"So, have you decided on a potion for your project yet, Ginny?" Hermione asked as we walked, forcing me to wake up a bit more.

I nodded and let out a yawn. "Yep, have you?" I responded, even though I already knew they had.

"Yes, we're doing the Draught of Living Death," she said, taking the opportunity given. "We're planning on changing it by making it temporary. I'm not quite sure yet how we'll do it, but I'm going to spend all week researching it. If it was temporary, it could be given without fear of actually killing the person if nobody was around to give the antidote. We're going to make it wear off after an hour or two."

"Sound like it'll be difficult," I said, sitting down at the table when we walked into the Great Hall.

"Yeah," Ron said without much enthusiasm as he began to fill a plat.

Hermione rolled her eyes at my brother and continued to tell me how she hoped to change the potion. I ended up tuning her out for the most part, just nodding when I needed to. Finally we had to head to class and I perked up a bit. I was looking forward to seeing Draco, much to my surprise.

When we got to class, the three of them went to sit at their table and I headed to my own. As like every time, Draco and Blaise were already there. For the first time though, I found myself smiling at the two. "Hello, Ginny," Draco said, standing and taking my bag for me.

I was surprised by his chivalry but accepted it with a smile. I noticed Ron shoot a glare towards Draco at his action and I just rolled my eyes. "Thanks," I said to Draco, giving him a smile as I took my seat.

"How was your day yesterday?" he asked politely, sitting my bag down for me.

"Full of homework," I said with a groan. "I hate homework."

"Me too," Blaise piped up, drawing my attention. "So I heard you and Draco had quiet the date Saturday."

I sputtered and coughed, caught completely by surprise. "T-that wasn't a date!" I cried quietly, trying not to make a scene.

Draco chuckled beside me and I shot him a glare. "Sounded like a date to me," Blaise said, grinning at my discomfort. "What would you call it?"

I had to think about that for a moment before I had an answer to give him. Obviously it wasn't a date. But what exactly was it? I would say just friends spending the day together but friends? We were friends? I'd only just gotten onto civil terms with him a few days ago. Was he already my friend? I realized with a start that after Saturday, yes, he was. "Just two friends hanging out," I told Blaise, nodding. "Now shush, class is about to start."

With that I turned to the front of the room where Professor Slughorn was readying for the lecture. Finally, he looked up and gave everyone a big smile. "Good morning everyone," he said happily. "Now, down to business. I trust everyone did their homework this weekend. I expect by the end of period a slip of paper from each group on my desk saying what potion you plan on brewing for your project and what about it you plan on changing."

"Oh crap," I whispered just loud enough for the two boys to hear. "We didn't decide how to change it!"

"Now, for those of you prepared for today, you may write your potion down and leave. If you need a little extra time to figure it out, you have until the end of the period," Slughorn said, seeing the many student's squirming. The majority of the class drew a sigh of relief.

The trio was one of the only groups to leave right after that, Hermione handing in a piece of parchment. Relieved we had time, I turned to my group. "How are we going to change the kissing concoction? What do you want to be different?"

"Well, we could make it last longer," Blaise offered with a shrug, obviously not knowing what to do.

"It's easy enough to re-dose someone under the effects of it," I pointed out. "So making it last longer is really of no use." I had an idea of my own, but I wasn't going to suggest it. I had the idea to make it stronger, for more than just kissing. It was already focused on a physical reaction, not necessarily emotional like the typical love potion, so It would be fairly easy to do. But I wouldn't suggested it, not unless I was ready to die of embarrassment at it being my idea.

"How about making it taste better," Blaise suggested, obviously not knowing much about love potions.

"They don't taste," Draco pointed out for me. "That's why so many people fall for taking it. It can be put in water or food and nobody would notice."

"Hmm, then I'm out of ideas," Blaise said with a shrug.

"How about making it stronger?" Draco suggested, peaking my interest. Maybe he had the same idea as me.

"Stronger how?" I probed.

"Can we make it, say, more physical?" he questioned, brow furrowed. "Is that even possible?"

"Yes, very," I said with a nod, already knowing vaguely how to do it. "I don't think it would be too hard."

"Easy, I'm up for that," Blaise said, agreeing to the idea. "Besides, I know a few girls I'd like to test it on."

It was then I realized a flaw in our plan. But Blaise was already writing down our potion and change on a piece of parchment. Before I could voice my concern he'd taken the paper up to Slughorn. "But, guys," I finally said as we walked out of the classroom. "We'll have to test it on ourselves."

"Hmm, this should be interesting," Draco said with a knowing laugh.

Dear God what did I get myself into.

Well, how was that? I know a bit shorter than I've been doing, but hey, at least I updated! Let me know what you think! Did you like it? What do you think is going to happen when they have to test that potion? Should be fun!

And on an awesome note: I'm one review away from 100! Let's see who will be the one to push me into the triple digits!

A happy author writes better and faster! So review and make me happy!